Fantasy Football Week 6: Early Top 15 Defense/Special Teams Rankings

The San Francisco 49ers have had about nine months to recover from their playoff loss at home to the New York Giants. Those same Giants will be back at Candlestick Park in Week 6 of this NFL season, where they should be expecting a confrontation with a seething defense that will capitalize on every mistake they make.

San Francisco has readied itself for this matchup by treating the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills as tune-up games in each of the past two weeks.

They smoked the two New York teams they’ve already faced to the tune of a combined score of 79-3. The Giants have been putting up points in bunches, but that San Francisco defense might be a buzz saw right now.

Fantasy owners should not be afraid of starting the 49ers against New York.

One of the bigger defensive mismatches this week might be the Arizona Cardinals defense facing off against the same Bills offense that got trounced by the 49ers.

Arizona will be at home for this matchup, allowing for major confidence in starting a unit that has already been successful this season.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be at home on the other side of the country, facing the Kansas City Chiefs’ Brady Quinn in his first start this season.

The Bucs have been effective stopping the run, which should force Quinn to throw the ball. Tampa Bay should be able to turn him over in Week 6.

Tom Brady of the New England Patriots presents an interesting dilemma for fantasy owners of the Seattle Seahawks defense. On one hand, you have the 12th man working in your favor to keep the score down in Seattle. On the other hand, it’s still Tom Brady.

New England’s offense has been reasonably bottled up on more than one occasion. The Patriots haven’t been in an environment as notoriously hostile as the one in Seattle, so the Seahawks defense should still be a top-10 unit this week.

This is the same team that held Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers to just 219 yards passing in Week 3.